“Wal-Mart Stores Inc is testing a ‘Scan & Go’ system that would allow shoppers to scan items using their iPhones and then quickly pay at a self-checkout counter,” Jessica Wohl reports for Reuters.
“If the test by the world’s largest retailer is successful, it has the potential to change the way people shop and pay, making the process more personal and potentially faster,” Wohl reports. “Earlier this week, Walmart invited employees with Apple Inc iPhones to participate in a test at a Walmart supercenter in Rogers, Arkansas, near the company’s headquarters, according to a form on the Survey Monkey website.”
Wohl reports, “In the Walmart iPhone scanning test, shoppers can scan products with their phone and put them in bags while they shop, and then pay at a self-checkout counter. It is unclear whether shoppers could pay directly with the iPhone or if they would need to use a regular form of payment, such as cash or a credit card.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Easy Pass” for iPhone users! The rest of you settlers can just settle back in line and wait like the settlers you are.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Mike D.” for the heads up.]
Isn’t Wal-Mart’s target audience more likely to be Android settlers or feature phone users?
They just have to wait until Samsung copies the feature.
Apple was testing something like this in its own stores about 8-9 months ago. In addition to scanning items and paying for them as discussed in the article, sensors and cameras were positioned around the store to detect the shopper’s location in the store and items he/she picked up. A major breakthrough in retailing won’t simply help the consumer pay more easily, but will also eliminate the retailer’s security concerns — a way of verifying that the consumer has paid for every item he/she carries out the front door. (For example, your iPhone would count the number of items in your possession when passing a check-point and compare it to the list of items you scanned when putting it into your cart.)
When the most valuable company in the world links up with the largest retailer in the world to test a technology that would slash the retailer’s costs … why, they’re building the store of the future!
Walmart is huge and a pretty big share of Americans shop there, but iPhones are far more popular in cities and among consumers with above-average incomes … so once the technology is perfected and in use, Target might benefit from it more than WMT.
Can be done via NFC! Nothing too innovative here but possibly a way for more Americans to lose their jobs as WalMart will o doubt scale back on cashiers.
Don’t worry Pat. If you lose your cashier job at WalMart, I’m sure you can get another!
Now that is some funny shit!!
Nah Pat’s just pushing a Wal-Mart broom around and scrubbing toilets so his job is secure.
BLN’s fungi
Do you think they let Pat drive the power shopping cart collector vehicle in the parking lot?
Pat is apprenticing and hoping to work his way up to washroom duty. He keeps getting the grip on the broom wrong by using his bottom instead of his hands.
You are a A typical iSheep! WOW!
You’d think by now that Pat would learn to keep his ignorant, immature mouth shut. Too much wishful thinking on my part!
Pat is an iTroll
go to Samdung’s web site
NFC Apple style.
Stop & Shop supermarkets are already using a system similar to this in most of their stores. It works great. When you are done shopping, you scan your rewards card at the register and select your method of payment.